


it's a difficulty and i'm biting on my tongue

by orphan_account



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 08:42:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3113390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I am—”<br/>“This is Verges.”<br/>“They call me Verges. Well, they don’t, really.”<br/>“I do.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's a difficulty and i'm biting on my tongue

**Author's Note:**

> written for the prompt 'introduction', day 4 of the lovely little ficlets 31 day challenge.
> 
> i just really liked the idea of agender verges.

_“I am—”_

_“This is Verges.”_

_“They call me Verges. Well, they don’t, really.”_

_“I do.”_

**-**

Verges meets Dogberry before they realise they’re not quite a girl, or a boy, that they’re not quite any gender, before they go by Verges and the singular ‘they’. They meet him at primary school.

**-**

“I am,” he pauses for a few moments. Verges learns later that he does that a lot; they never really find out why, but it doesn’t bother them. “Dogberry.”

“Dogberry?” they say with an incredulous laugh. “Is that your _real_ name?”

“It is the name that I wish to go by,” Dogberry replies with a frown, like they’d just said something very strange. “So, yes, it is my real name.”

“Oh,” they say. There’s a moment of pause and it allows Verges to hear screaming, of the joyous kind, from their peers from the playground. “Well, in that case, call me Verges.”

“Okay, then,” Dogberry clasps his hands together. “Do you happen to know of anyone who would have information on the mysteriously missing board rubber?”

**-**

They ask him a few years later if he would mind if they weren’t a girl.

“No,” he scoffs. “Of course not, gender is a social construct.”

“Oh, okay then,” they say, pleased but a bit unsure. They decide to do some research and come back with the singular ‘they’ and a settled feeling in their chest. Dogberry accepts it as he accepts everything and helps them forget their mother’s disregard by delving into the mystery of the janitor’s mop and the ambiguous bundle at the end of it.

**-**

Verges always introduces themself with a, “Can you call me Verges?”

They almost always say no, because they know about the weird detective kids from that incident with Cora and Robbie, and they know how odd they are. 

After a while, Dogberry starts to introduce them instead, talking fast like he does and in that matter-of-fact manner that makes everything sound severe.

They ask him about it one day. They're in his room, on his bed, but Dogberry’s mother knows that their relationship is purely platonic. She understands a lot more than Verges’s own mother does. 

Verges has their legs over Dogberry’s, and he’s leaning a book on their knees, face close to the page and eyes squinted. Verges hands him the magnifying glass.

Dogberry doesn’t look up when they ask. He says, “I can stop if you wish me to. But you should not ask to be addressed by your name. It’s not optional. It’s your name.”

“I don’t want you to stop,” they say, after a moment of silence, and maybe it's cowardice, but it's easier for them, and someone else saying it, especially Dogberry, makes it feel like it's  _real,_ instead of something for their parents and scary Year Twelves to scoff at. 

"Okay,” he says agreeably. “Pass me the UV torch?”

And that’s that.


End file.
